As we all know, Batman and the Joker are in dynamic balance in all aspects. If Batman is strong, the Joker will be strong; if Batman is weak, the Joker will be weak. If Batman leaves Gotham for something, the Joker will disappear. If Batman relaxes his vigilance, the Joker will definitely Take advantage of the opportunity.
Overall, this all boils down to one rule: the sicker Batman gets, the crazier the Joker gets.
But no matter what, the Joker's ultimate goal is just to make Batman laugh. Now, Batman not only laughed, but he also killed people. He went one step further by killing his teacher, and went one step further by manipulating others to kill people. He also went one step further by manipulating an eleven-year-old girl to kill someone.
It's hard to tell whether he's recovered from his illness or whether he's crazy beyond the clown's judgment. When Bruce was driving a Lamborghini tractor on a farm in Kansas, Thomas had just arrived. At that time, Jack came to collect debts with an IOU. After Bruce came back, he was scolded by Thomas.
Then, Bruce went to Jack and told him that due to too much initial investment, Wayne Group was short of funds and needed some time to slow down, and asked him if he could give it a break.
Bruce is also a businessman who has experienced ups and downs in the business world. He naturally knows that when talking about debt transactions, small money still needs to be spent if the big money is not covered. So, he and Jack found a barbecue stall near Jack's truck parking lot, and Treat Jack to a barbecue.
That barbecue was surprisingly delicious. That day, Bruce went to inspect the construction site and met Waylon, the killer crocodile who was doing odd jobs. It happened that Waylon had not eaten, so Bruce took him to the barbecue stall. Maybe he was hungry from work, and the barbecue was not good. Surprisingly delicious.
Jack would always pass by that stall when he was driving. Killer Croc would often move bricks less than a kilometer away from there, and Bruce would always go to the East District to visit the construction site. As time went by, it became a regular dining spot.
Jack only runs cold-fresh goods in the city, and most of the cold-fresh goods are at the warehouse near the dock. When the last train is coming back, it happens to pass by the South District, so he can pick up Bruce just in time. When the two of them As we drove past, Killer Croc had just finished dusting it.
At first, there were only three of them eating, but as Gotham's police chief, James Gordon inevitably often visited the East District gang boss's house, regulating some trucks to get out of the way and firing twenty-eight shots, and hiding drugs in the cold storage for thirty-seven gangs. Little things like that.
So one day, Gordon happened to drive by and saw a few people sitting on the roadside eating barbecue. The main reason was that the image of Killer Crocodile was too conspicuous and could be recognized from a few hundred meters away, so he got out of the car and Several people said hello.
Gordon was already here, so naturally Bruce couldn't let him go back with an empty stomach, so he also joined the dinner.
It happened that Thomas went back to stay at Wayne Manor that night, and Bruce would rather spend time at the barbecue stall than go home. The remaining three people had no families, and there was nothing to do when they went back, so Gordon got out of his car. A deck of cards was turned out, and several people started playing unlimited Texas Hold'em poker.
Of course, although the barbecue that day was still delicious, it ended on a bad note because Jack stole cards to make up his four, which happened to break Gordon's royal flush, and he was handcuffed on the spot.
Later, because all the barbecue stalls on that street basically had the same source of meat - the offcuts provided by Copot that had been eliminated by high-end restaurants in the South and West Districts, all tasted good, and there were many truck drivers nearby, so they developed It has become a barbecue street.
A few people would eat and play cards there every once in a while, almost meeting the conditions for Jack to get out of the car, Killer Croc to finish ashes, and Gordon to come to the East End to do business. As for Bruce, the whole Gotham knew that he was an idler, so there was nothing wrong with him. Where is he.
This is almost the entire background of the barbecue stall party, but it is obvious that Damian, who has only been here for less than twenty-four hours, cannot know this, and his whole person has turned into a statue.
The best he could do was to turn his head straight, not to look at who was driving next to him, and to empty his mind from thinking about who was holding him now.
Damian has never been hugged by Batman. It is conceivable that he cannot stay in his biological father's arms for more than a second, but the current situation is better than others.
To put it bluntly, lying in the arms of a father is better than lying in the arms of a clown, right? It has to be better than lying in a tomb, right?
The devil boy has never been so quiet in his life, and all he can do now is forget about the fact that he has a mouth.
But Bruce acted as if nothing had happened. After closing the truck door, he rolled down the window. The night wind in Gotham blew the hair back from his forehead, and the moonlight made his eyes brighter.
"How many times did you run today? Six times?" Bruce turned to Jack and asked. Jack put one hand on the steering wheel and stretched out the car window with the other. He pouted and said: "The market is not so good. At the hottest time, you can't even run six times. Lige Style Street is as blocked as Old Nord." Mom’s birth canal and that gold tooth at the dock always give me trouble.”
"He won't let you unload the goods?"
"At least twice a day, half an hour each time." Damian, who was sitting in Bruce's arms, finally recovered a little, and then he began to wonder, was it really the Joker sitting in the driver's seat?
Or just an avid fan of his makeup looks? Is this topic a bit too down-to-earth? Then he heard Bruce say, "That's because he stopped your bomb-laden car twice."
"It's bomb material." Jack corrected. He pulled the shift lever hard, looked ahead and said, "They are all good products from the Wayne Group. They cost me a lot of money. They are all cheap to the gangsters at the dock."
"Don't tell me you can't get it back." Jack snorted coldly, pressed the horn, turned the corner and said, "I originally planned to use him to give another Batman a big surprise."
"Thomas? Then why did you change your mind?"
"Because he is too boring." Jack curled his lips and said, "He is a bottle filled with boring potion, you know? He has been completely solidified and is a walking behavioral template."
"He only does what Batman does, he only says what Batman says, and it's the same play a thousand times over. He'll never change, he'll never grow, he'll never let me see me. Something unexpected—he was bored out of his mind.”
"When I went to Wayne Manor to find him with that IOU, I had already watched a show. I really don't know how much cement went into my brain before I thought about spending two months of my life. I won’t be paid to go see the same play again." Jack put his hands on the steering wheel, looked at Bruce and said, "And I only spent a hundred dollars on a show that was much more exciting than his." Bruce turned his head away to look out the window, And Damian looked up and was horrified to find that he saw a trace of pride on Bruce's face.
As Jack turned the steering wheel, he spoke in a low tone that was not at all crazy, but even a little rational and cold.
"Thomas Wayne is another Batman. He is like an actor, playing the same character on stage after stage. In my opinion, his lines, movements and gestures are completely traceable."
"Perhaps his performance is perfect. When you sit in the theater for the first time, you will be curious about the deep darkness displayed in him, and you will be shocked by his depth and seriousness."
"But soon, he changed theaters, changed stages, made the same deep and serious expression, showed the same darkness, and another group of audiences also cheered for it, but that was because they didn't love him enough."
"They don't follow Batman faithfully and watch every scene he plays, otherwise they will find that Batman remains the same."
"In an era when entertainment was scarce, this was acceptable. Shakespeare's plays were performed over and over again, and gentlemen and ladies still flocked to the theater and were still moved to tears at the end."
"But you, Batman, are a drama in your own right, a newly lit fire rather than a charred rotten wood. Your ideas are at odds with each other, and your thoughts are still changing, appearing on different stages. Different plot.”
"And when I follow you, I can see a dramatic conflict that is far more exciting than the acting skills of an actor. It is constantly growing, rising and evolving violently. It makes my heart beat fast and my adrenaline bursts."
"You are not an actor, so you don't need me to act opposite you. Even if you are the only one on the stage, the performance is worth the price of admission."
"After that, the Batman appeared on stage again, but he asked me to jump on stage to play with him, so that he could perform a bit of painful vividness from the rigid seriousness. How could he not make me feel that he was superior to others? "Damian opened his mouth wide, and the words he had formed a habit of scolding the clown were already on his lips, and the second before he spat out, Bruce reached out to cover his mouth, turned to the clown and said.
"You could be more straightforward."
"You're better than Thomas Wayne!"
"Thank you for the compliment. I'll treat you today." The truck slowly drove into the noisy street. The messy wires weaved a large net above the head. The crooked neon signs handmade by the owners of various barbecue stalls were hung everywhere. The smoke and aroma They jumped up together, and the moment they floated into the car window, Damian's stomach rumbled.
He was a child, and he was hungry very quickly. His biological father and the Robins had said that they would send them to another universe. He was so angry that he skipped a meal, and now he was so hungry that his chest was touching his back. .
Bruce lowered his head and touched his head and said: "I guess you have never eaten barbecue, because Thomas also told me that smoked products are unhealthy. If you don't yell everywhere when you go back tonight, then I won't tell your father. , how about it?" Damian swallowed, and his reason told him not to agree, because it was impossible for him to just keep it in his heart to eat barbecue with the clown, but he was really hungry.
Soon, the scene he saw broke down his last psychological defense - at the barbecue stall that Bruce was carrying him towards, Barbara Gordon was sitting next to Gordon secretly sprinkling chili peppers on the meat skewers.
Suddenly, Damian felt betrayed and joined everyone in an angry hunger strike. I was the last one to eat, right?
Damian had a bad temper. A burst of fire hit his forehead. He immediately grabbed Bruce's arm and climbed up, then beat his shoulder with his hand and said loudly.
"Don't invite them! Then order me the most expensive meat! Double portion! Quadruple portion!"
"You don't have to tell Thomas anything." At this moment, Barbara, who was sitting on the pony behind Gordon, looked up and saw Jack at the first glance, who was carrying a bunch of truck keys next to Bruce.
The bat girl was struck by thunder.
